GamePAC in the News

By Micheal Lyster
Investor's Business Daily

Vince Desiderio, chief executive of irreverent Tucson, Ariz., game maker Running With Scissors, has joined forces with other game developers to start a political-action committee [sic] called GamePAC. 

The group was formed in June to advance the interests of game developers in Washington and state capitals. 

The industry is under fire for violent games like Desiderio's "Postal," in which disgruntled, gun-wielding postal workers score points by shooting people. 

"Without a political voice, you're missing the biggest game in America, which is politics," said Verin Lewis, an Ashland, Ore., game developer and GamePAC co-founder. 

GamePAC will represent small video and computer developers and players, Lewis says. Big game publishers such as San Mateo, Calif.-based Electronic Arts Inc. and Japan's Nintendo Co. already have a voice in Washington through the Interactive Digital Software Association. Most of its members are big companies.

"If you can get 100,000 developers and gamers to contact Congress directly, you're going to have a lot more power," Lewis said. "They won't be able to dismiss us as a group of well-financed elitists who don't really represent the populace of America." 

GamePAC's debut comes as lawmakers are pressuring the industry to help curb youth violence. Games like Irvine, Calif.-based Interplay Entertainment Corp.'s "Carmageddon," in which players run over pedestrians, have fueled the political fire over violent games. 

U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the industry's biggest critic on Capitol Hill, regularly scolds game makers for violence. This year, Florida lawmakers tried but failed to pass legislation banning violent games from arcades. And Salem, Ore., officials are looking to restrict access to violent games in the wake of May's school shooting in nearby Springfield, Ore., which killed four people.

Lewis, who worked on the "The 7^th Guest" game for Viacom Inc.'s Virgin Interactive unit, says GamePAC isn't out to condone violent games. But he feels the industry is being unfairly singled out, putting creative freedom at risk. 

"My personal proclivity is to produce non-violent games," he said. "But I would protect and defend the rights of others to free expression. Today it's violence. Tomorrow it could be an unpopular political opinion." 

There's also a need to keep the government out or the booming game business, supporters say. 

Last year, U.S. sales of video and computer games rose 37% to $5.1 billion, says the Interactive Digital Software Association's general counsel.

Desiderio of Running With Scissors says there is a need for GamePAC. His company has sold about 200,000 copies of "Postal." But the game has been pulled by retailers such as CompUSA Inc. It was banned in South Korea, Australia, Germany and Brazil. 

"Postal" isn't for everyone, Desiderio says. The game has a "mature" warning lable on the cover as part of a voluntary, 4-year-old rating system developed by te Entertaiment Software Rating Board, an industry group. Desiderio also points out that parents can install Internet blocking software so kids can't access his company's Web site, where the game is for sale.

Eric Federing, a spokesman for Lieberman, says the senator would rather see more industry policing than government regulation. But the senator wants game makers to tone down violence. 

"People ought to take responsibility for their actions," Federing said. "They don't need to squeeze every last

Bendner, GamePAC's co-founder, counters that the industry has made strides with game ratings and software settings within games themselves that can be used to cut down violence. Beyond that, he says, it's a matter of individual responsibility. 

"It's up to parents to regulate what their children do," Bendner said. "It's not up to the government to legislate what the public in general is able to buy or enjoy."